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How to actually get off your damn phone

45m 16s

How to actually get off your damn phone

The speaker imagines how aliens would view humanity with bewilderment: people spend years in jobs they hate, fight over politics and religion, and remain glued to small rectangular screens, ignoring the vast world around them. This leads to the central topic—how to break the addictive spell of phones and social media. The speaker argues that the first step is awareness: recognizing that these platforms are engineered to capture attention and foster mindlessness. By becoming more aware of one’s own habits and the design tricks used (e.g., Instagram’s swipe-to-reels feature), individuals can begin to reclaim control. The speaker advocates for adopting a “producer mindset,” where one creates content rather than just consuming it, which reveals the mechanics behind algorithms and engagement. This shift fosters curiosity and critical observation, such as noticing subtle changes in app interfaces or practicing peripheral vision exercises while using the phone. Extreme observation—paying close attention to details in daily life—strengthens the mind and counters atrophy. Ultimately, the speaker stresses that discipline must come from within; no external product can replace personal ownership of one’s behavior. Building intention and self-communication is a gradual, individualized process that requires consistent effort, but it leads to greater clarity and presence in the real world.

Transcription

6948 Words, 36858 Characters

English
I'm trying to say you see I don't want to go through your phone Go through your phone by PJ Morton if you haven't heard it Well now you have but you definitely got to listen to the real version It might be slightly better than my little singing snippet there, but check this out From the aliens perspective Looking down on the earth What would the alien think? Oh? My gosh look at these little creatures man. They They go to these buildings every day and they spend quite a time there quite a lot of time there and they don't Like it actually they hate it and then they get back to their other building at the end of the day and then complain but they they stay with it they don't quit they do this for years and years and years and years and I don't know why and The way they pick their leaders. Oh my goodness It's a shit show they They're essentially trying to figure out who's going to lead them in the best direction every four years and They really hate each other over it. Oh my goodness. They even kill each other over it also They're so consumed by this idea of who is the floating spirit in the sky and they wear jewelry that shows who they believe in They go to these other buildings once a week or multiple times a week depending on which version they believe in to worship that spirit and Gosh you think about the the leader thing that people are getting angry over this this one's even worse We've got entire regions of these people Trying to kill other regions over their thought of who the floating spirit in the sky is It's really crazy also seemingly everybody and And even in areas that don't seem like this would be the case, but seemingly everybody has a little rectangle that they carry around and though they have the vast planet To observe and learn from They're so consumed by these little rectangular screens that they carry around so much so that Sometimes they can't even hear people over their observation of the screen but Their ears aren't plugged and actually even listening to anything but their attention is so far consumed by the screen That they miss what's going on in the world around them so consistently It's weird because it seems like some of these human creatures created this They created this situation where everybody is consumed by the attention grabbing screen that nobody can look away from and it seems like when people are very Mindless in this way when people are very passive and attached to something That almost atrophies their mind Instead of empowering their mind It's very easy to control them From the aliens perspective it would be wild to look down on how humans Interact in general for sure, but are so consumed by their damn phones so in this episode I'd love to Talk about how to get off y'all day on the phone That's the whole thing How can we break that spell How can you actually build a different relationship with the phone that maybe involves more mindfulness and more awareness Because I think it's not only something that's starting to happen and something that's been happening for years and years that People are generally starting to not live their lives outside of the phone And when you can break the spell when you can just Cut the cycle for a second and exit that There's a lot of clarity to be found in this And I think the way that we go about it is very important to I think it's definitely a popular thing today to kind of Get off the phone, you know what I mean spend time Staring out the wall and whatnot. I I hope that the messages I continue to preach around that are playing apart I eat no phone dinner if you've listened to the podcast, you know that every single end of the episode I'm telling you when you eat dinner tonight you better put your damn phone away to practice being present So it's definitely becoming a thing But oftentimes you see Some of these products like the the brick thing for example, which I definitely think is really cool But I think when another product or another thing is what helps people get off of The the first thing as in the phone then people aren't really able to take full ownership of kind of the discipline around these things and so Along with the product of being disciplined or consistent or getting off of the phone my mind goes to Who is the authority over that who actually owns the discipline of the behavior and I think that every individual should be the owner of their own good behavior so a Lot of a lot of thoughts in this kind of category because I think in nearly every single way The technology of today is somewhat involved and even to try and get people to back away from technology a little bit We still have to work from within as in to spread a message about spending less time on social media Where the hell do you put that on social media so there's a lot of a lot of paradoxical nature I guess to some of the things that I'm talking about because maybe you're listening to this podcast on your damn phone so kind of a contradiction there But we'll kind of accept that and again try and work from within the concept of yeah Everyone's on their damn phones anyways. I am too. So my first kind of I guess umbrella of ideas here break the hypnosis through awareness So the way that you break any kind of cycle is through being aware of that cycle in the first place and I don't know I have this I have this sliver of empathy for quote-unquote most people in a sense. I know empathy coming from me impossible If you only watched me on Instagram And only saw the hot takes That people get so angry about and say I remember when you were such an empathetic guy and I say oh You're judging all my posts by a couple a couple of fun posts here and there But gosh this podcast is so good because we get to cover everything we get to actually have some nuance So I say that with sarcasm. I actually try and be pretty damn empathetic But it doesn't always come through in a 15-second message my goodness, but look my sliver of empathy here It is for people that Really don't have the time I Mean when it comes down to it we've kind of been programmed in a sense to work all day long or go to work all day long come back home and You only have a little bit of time and so to be able to feel relaxed and quote-unquote enjoy that time Most people are going to try and use some form of distraction They're not gonna go to work all day long and then come home and listen to some podcasts about mental health and I don't know how the the technology of today is Attrophying human mind instead of empowering it and you pick up on so many of these things when you listen to a lot of Deeper folks out there that are talking about this kind of stuff, but for the average person They're not being taught to seek that out and I feel like the baseline almost in today's world is Not curiosity It's trying to shut out the possibilities of new ideas because new ideas are kind of uncomfortable and so that that's my that's my sliver of empathy there It's not like this stuff is just Top from day one. Hey, you should be mindful. Hey, you should bring awareness to things. Hey, you should spend time kind of working on yourself Maybe if you're listening to this podcast you listen to a lot of other content that says Similar messages and you're kind of in a healthy echo chamber in a way that's empowering you to actually use your mind But you gotta realize that that is not the average person. I've got to realize that is not the average person. So awareness is a big deal. The way that you change something, it's just calling attention to it. And I don't know how to tell you to bring attention to something, to be honest with you. I've had this conversation so many times. When I'm talking to or working with really high-performing people and maybe there's an objective in place, hey, you should remember to do blank. Or you should remember this mental framework around, oh, here you're acting really scarce. You need to bring more abundance into your relationships, whatever it might be. The next question would be how, how do you do that? How do you access that part of your mind? How do you wake up early in the morning? How do you be disciplined, etc? The answer isn't such a, it's not such a feel-good answer because it literally is, bring more attention. Be more aware. Remember, you know, you can't really go down any further because the question is also the answer. How do you wake up early? You wake up early. Whatever is beneath that, that is almost proprietary. Whatever it takes for you to get yourself to remember something, that is how you bring intention. That is how you call attention to anything. And so accessing that part of your mind and getting more used to seeing your own self is kind of the control center. That makes this skill a lot easier. So for me, if I go to bed tonight and say, all right, in the morning, I need to remember X. I will definitely wake up and just remember that thing immediately because I've built that strong communication with myself. But how do you build greater intention? You just intend more and more. So you kind of fabricate this urgency, repeat stuff to yourself over and over again. And you'll learn how your mind responds to that intention. So when you think of, I guess, I guess the whole phone sort of thing, technology in general. And this goes much wider, but this is the focus here. Being less of a consumer and more of a producer, this gives you a different lens to see things through. So I create content on social media. I go on social media in kind of a different mind posture than maybe the average person because the average person is going to go on there just to consume. I go on there to consume sure, but also to kind of gather information. And I've almost got this added third person observation eye when I'm scrolling because I go, oh, maybe this was a funny video or maybe this was an interesting thing. But why did this work and why did this get a lot of people's attention? And then you start to get curious about these things. And then you start to kind of explore those questions outside of just your own mind. And then you hear people talking about how these algorithms work. And I've brought this up before you look at these platforms and they're built obviously to be kind of a mental glue to the to the scroll. And it used to be that if you're on the homepage of Instagram, you would see your messages in the top right. So it'd be a little red dot. Excuse me. It'd be a little red dot. And you can see that, oh, I have two messages. So you'd connect this red dot in your mind with I have messages. Boom, click open. You could also swipe. You could swipe left and it would bring up your messages. And it was that way for years. Now when you're on the homepage of Instagram, your home feed, you see that same little dot in the red corner, which is actually now your notifications. And if you swipe left, it's going to bring you into reels. And then the algorithm is hyper adapted to what you like and what you're going to find funny or interesting or engaging. And that first video is going to be the best thing you've ever seen. And then there you find yourself in the scroll. And it's completely mindless. And then you've been scrolling for 30 minutes and you go, whoa, what was I even on here for? That's intentional. Through having this producer sort of lens, I've learned these things. I'm not immune to it. But I am able to go on these platforms and see that, oh, this is this is part of the plan. This is not just the way it is. This is a skilled crafting of making people engaged and actually have a hard time breaking away from it. So having the producer mindset gives you kind of the inside scoop. And that's that's going to be in any sense. You know, I mean, if you started to produce music and then you hear some shit on the radio and you hear someone's voice do something crazy. Oh, I see that's auto tune. It's actually really easy to do that. And then you find that most musicians or most singers on the top charts might not even be that great at singing. They're just great at being a famous celeb. If you start looking into rocket science, you probably get the inside scoop on rocket science. You know what I mean? There's so much information to be found when you are interested and curious instead of just consuming things. You could even take products at the grocery store. If you were to create a food product and try to get it into a grocery store, you would have this crazy library of knowledge that just shows you, oh my gosh, and I see what it takes to get the organic certification and gluten free certification and how you have to prove your value to the grocery stores and then they invest in kind of this wholesale model and some stores even do kind of a consignment model where you're only getting paid once your shit goes off the shelf. It's ridiculous. I'm saying this because I have done this personally, but any sector that you start to become a producer and you get a crazy amount of information. So this is a big part of this awareness that as we kind of go forward is going to funnel down a little bit more specifically into kind of this idea of the phone. Also a big part of the awareness, it's extreme observation. So the only way that I was able to see that little pattern of the message is thing on Instagram is by watching over the years a big priority of mine has been tuning my eyes and ears to be very sensitive in a good way to where I pick up on a lot of detail. Very, very, very detail oriented in my life, especially with sound, little sound bites and stuff really stick with me, songs and everything. I mean, obviously the way I start each podcast episode, I just, I love to have this network of visual and audio information that kind of connects my world if that makes sense. I don't know. Maybe I sound like I'm speaking another language, but I'm sure as intentional folks listening to this, you might have some form of being able to relate to that. But this extreme observation idea, I'm really passionate about it because I think it opens up just a whole new world of information and being able to connect with people. I did this as kind of a huge deep dive, the idea of extreme observation. I did this in my mastermind group. So it was a huge curated lesson about, again, these ideas of tuning the senses to the world around you and the amount of information that you pick up on. It was really cool because in the community, you know, for the week following, a bunch of people were taking photos of the things that they see on their walk and they said, "Wow, I never really realized that this railing had these little seahorses, I think, one person said." And it just looked at the artistry of the architecture around them and just pointing out little details about their daily walk because that was one of the exercises I did for the group. I said, "Hey, what are five to ten things that you see on your commute or your walk every day to make people more tuned to their environment?" And diving into kind of these finer skill sets within the mastermind, I really love to do because there's not a lot of groups out there talking about these more specific skills. I think people hyperfixate over a lot of the branches of what people want to accomplish as in fitness, finances, relationships, etc. But when we start to attach these really valuable lenses to our own character, the world becomes very different, again, utilizing this idea of awareness, being less of a consumer, more of a producer, extreme observation. So going through those deep dives with everybody, it creates some of the most amazing conversations. And I feel really excited to continue equipping myself with these kind of skills, but bringing that into the mastermind. and group teaching people to, again, kind of beef up these skill sets that make you a better communicator. They make you more able to connect with other people and make you more capable in the work that you do and your lifestyle, the self-relationship that you have. It is such a cool thing. If you'd be interested in joining that group, by the way, the top link in the description of this episode, it's my landing page. You can go there and see kind of all the details and whatnot. It's such a cool group and, again, being able to deep dive topics like that, I feel like a scientist with all of us just breaking down these super niche kind of ideas. It's absolutely incredible. So, I also talked about this all the time now that I'm thinking of it. There was a day I was on my phone. I mean, when you're looking down at the damn screen, you're very engulfed in that experience. And growing up, I feel like I could watch something in detail. 120 degrees away from my damn eyeballs. I've gone my peripheral vision is maybe better than my straightforward vision at this point because you can just pick up on so much in this wider field of your eyes. And I started to exercise that a little bit while I was on my phone. So, I was looking at the screen. But then I was trying to pay attention to kind of the edges of my sight instead of what was actually in front of me. And it was really interesting just how though I'm kind of presenting it as more of a visual exercise, it really was more of a mental sort of what the hell am I doing kind of exercise because I'm looking out on my phone and just realizing that, oh my gosh, I'm feeling like the world is in my hand on this screen. But really, it's everywhere else. The world and what's actually happening is not here at this little collection of pixels. It's in this looking around the room and looking outside and picking my head up because our heads are just down all the time. So, being able to kind of pick the head up in that way while being on the screen, it accessed a new kind of awareness. And so, now sometimes when I'm looking down at my phone like that, again, I remember this little conversation with myself and I start to look in the peripheral vision and I kind of pick my head up and go, oh shoot, okay. I need to remind myself that I'm in the damn world and this phone is not my world. So this is really just kind of an image of my mind on this idea of awareness. And this stuff is super abstract. I'm not sitting here going, oh, here are the three steps to becoming more aware. It's not like that because these little conversations with yourself, these observations, I mean, again, they're proprietary to you and you synthesize information different from me and the next person synthesizes information different from you. We all have these unique abilities to kind of speak our own language. But in this umbrella of awareness, it's just super important that you actually work on that because if you don't, again, if you're not exercising your mind through observation and through thinking, it atrophies, it just gets weaker and then mindlessness is kind of the product and the magnet to the phone. So toxicity is kind of the fuel of phones, social media. It's this hyper addictive state. It's not a healthy thing. So that would be kind of a really important thing to recognize is that you're up against something that is addictive and toxic. So you can be in a toxic relationship with anything. I think most people are in a toxic relationship with the phone because the phone is kind of a false safety blanket. You can be in a toxic relationship with yourself. I think most people are in that kind of relationship too because the self fuels heavy emotions and fuels attacked by the self then tries to reconcile with the self by utilizing all kinds of distraction and whatnot. So it's just this emotional roller coaster. There's a lot of people that are addicted to a certain substance, for example. They're actually using that substance to fuel the toxic self relationship because if you don't like who you are, the only way out of not liking who you are is by treating yourself very well. But you don't want to treat somebody that treats you like shit well. So then you treat them like shit. But this is all going on within you. And then any form of distraction or any form of avoidance from the self is used and then it just inflates that toxic relationship again. So we can have a very toxic relationship with a lot of things and it's only through awareness that we're going to be able to see that and kind of break it down. This is the real nuance behind this phone shit. It's not so simple. It's not just kind of a, "Oh, put it in a thing and lock it up and get this app that forces you to do X, Y and Z." So this is the real stuff here. And I hope that this, I mean, I know most people that hear me talk about these things probably will not latch onto them because this is real self-work. This is real self-development. This isn't some hack type of bullshit. And I kind of shoot myself in the foot by presenting this sort of information because it's not like this is viral by any means. It's not like the real truth is actually what people want to hear because again, they're stuck in a lot of different toxic relationships. But this is the real deal. This is that nuance. This is how you not only break away from something but do that through pure ownership and awareness and you maintain the authority over yourself instead of being mindlessly pulled into shit that you're probably not going to be happy with five to ten years from now. Again, trying to kind of give you the real deal here. And I also know that it's heavy. I know that this is not easy to do. Paying attention is not easy because it's not incentivized today. So I'll share this idea of kind of the good versus bad, how much just I'm bringing a fellow out of my chair. And I'll show you this dynamic of toxicity, especially on social media. And I think social media is the main thing driving people to be addicted to their phones. So the idea of phone addiction is kind of more social media addiction at least in my mind. So when somebody is a creator, well, we have two different kinds of creators just for the sake of this dynamic or this concept. We have the good creator, the person who truly wants to help, the person who creates content that equips their audience with real skills and insight, hopefully creating some sort of abundance there. And then you have the ultra toxic sort of creator that they're putting out stuff that is not made to better the audience. It's actually made to just engage the audience at whatever cost. So the good creator actually will start with the toxic creator. The toxic creator has people that believe in them and people that don't. The people that believe in them are also going to carry toxic traits. So then when there are people that don't believe in that creator, the toxic believers are going to fight the hell out of that war against the people that disagree and the people that disagree in this toxic container are also going to be very toxic. So for this toxic creator, there are, you know, there's a split of toxic on their team, toxic off of their team, and then they go to war. And what does war do? Creates engagement. And it makes the toxic person even more toxic and it makes them even more popular. So they're incentivized to be shitty. Now we have the good creator. The good creator is putting out content to try and again, equip their audience with skills with abundance. Ideally, well, ideally for the audience, they're walking away with a better mind, again, a better skill set, some form of abundance that is not toxic. And my experience, a lot of what I talk about is like, don't just blindly trust people. You can, you can trust yourself. You have ownership over yourself. You can do hard things. You don't have to just blatantly listen to people. The message there is don't just blindly listen to the shit that you're seeing, including the stuff that I'm saying, unless you actually assess what you believe in, what your priorities are, that should be your lens first. Don't just blatantly trust me. Alright, so then people see that for long enough and they go, okay, maybe I should spend less time on social media. Maybe I should start writing. Maybe I should start running. more. Maybe I'm going to really live my own life. Maybe I'll become a producer of this instead of just a toxic consumer. And then the people that disagree, they disagree harshly because I'm kind of placing passive attacks on the toxic traits. So people that are toxic and they receive something that's not toxic, they're going to absolutely hate that because that's not fuel for them. So for the good creator, you have the people that believe in them that are not going to be toxic and inflammatory. And then you just have the people that don't like them that have a storm of their own, but it doesn't create this mass engagement. And so the person that's putting out good stuff is very minimally incentivized to keep doing it in that same way. So they're not growing as fast as the toxic person. So the whole system is based on toxic attention. It does not matter what it is that gets people's attention. It just matters that you get people's attention. This is my beef with all of these platforms. I just saw a post on Instagram as I was mindlessly consumed by the scroll getting, maybe not getting. And it said Netflix is coming out with a TikTok like part of their platform that has short snippets of blah, blah, blah. And I'm going, are you kidding me? And maybe that was made up by AI just for the reaction who knows. But if that's actually the case, mind blowing, absolutely ridiculous. Why are we trying to cater to the most toxic form of human communication more and more? Oh, I know. Because remember the alien perspective thing when more people are mindless, it's much easier to control them. Seems like it's part of the plan. Now, what I see as kind of a general statement here with the phone thing, excuse me, we've built a society around an object that keeps us out of touch, out of touch with each other, out of touch with nature. That's a really dystopian idea. I mean, genuinely, our culture is around the social media thing. The celebrities, all of that. I mean, I guess it used to be TV and movies and whatnot. But even TVs and movies now, I feel like are more through the lens of social media. Most people spend a lot of time watching this stuff. And again, it's based on a toxic model. And so I can't say that it's the absolute best thing in the world. So our society is based on being out of touch. And again, it's this paradoxical struggle of how do you get people to change that without working from within that? And so it's kind of funny. The idea of just posting on Instagram, about spending less time on Instagram, it's just, you know, how do you even overcome that? It's definitely something that I'm personally trying to think through. And it always emphasizes my enjoyment for doing something like this podcast because I'm actually able to go through a lot of different ideas and wonder things and just sit here and be present with it instead of just cheapening everything into some sort of blurb. So really think about that though, our society is built around an object that keeps us out of touch on a societal level. It's not just some people with some sort of problem. Nearly every single person is a part of that culture. Is a part of the out of touch would rather scroll on their phone than go outside and just sit and look. You know what is very interesting is that oftentimes if you, if you were to show an animal a phone screen, you put a, you put a phone up to a dog, I feel like they always just look away from it. It's really interesting. It's really interesting how it captures the human eye. But more wild animals just couldn't give a damn about it. Pretty crazy. So my last, last little chunk here, I want to give you kind of a do something list because I know a lot of these ideas are pretty abstract and out there, but again, you can do as many things as you want, but if you don't have the awareness and this observation and kind of the scope of the toxicity involved, then there's not going to be much fuel behind making the change and doing the things that I'm going to mention. But again, hopefully, hopefully some of this is resonating and making sense. Sometimes I tend to not make sense, but I'm doing my best here. So the first thing to do is kind of a don't do as well, but that's no phone dinner, like I mentioned, at least, at least for dinner time every night. You should not be looking at your phone. You should not be on your computer. You should not be watching TV. You shouldn't be listening to music even. Some calm ambient sort of stuff maybe. I mean, I'm not, I'm so pro music. It's such a pain when I say don't listen to the music, but I think pure silence is really powerful. And especially if you don't get much of that at all, you know, I say 15, 20 minutes of absolutely nothing would probably be the way to go. Gosh, some of my throat. But no, no technology, nothing like that while you're eating dinner, again, at least while you're eating dinner every night, just appreciate your meal. Okay. We don't, you don't have to be distracted. And maybe if you spent a lot of time on your phone and all of this technology for so many years, like we all have, you know, this first few nights eaten dinner, you might find your knee kind of bouncing around. You might be looking around for something to grab a read and try and work through that, try and resist that a little bit. Because if you can exist in the present moment, I mean, you're more powerful than most people at all today because nobody's practicing this to think that someone going into a waiting room and just waiting for 10 minutes would be kind of difficult for a lot of people. It's insane. You know, and you can really see people start to lose this sense of okeness when they just have to sit and do nothing. That is crazy. Alright, so no phone dinner. Do not look at the phone while you're eating dinner. It will absolutely change your life. It will change how your brain works. We need people to be doing this. If I could, if I could cast a spell or is it, it would be a good thing to, I don't know, if I could cast a positive spell on the entire world, it would be the no phone dinner. For sure. See, everyone exercises every day or everyone does the no phone dinner. I think either one of those would have ridiculous, ridiculous positives, but no phone dinner. Now, this next point is so cool. It's actually just a great practical tip. So one of the members in the mastermind, Abby, if you're listening to this, what's up? She had some really cool advice when we talked about the extreme observation and just how we interact with our phones and whatnot. So she mentioned this feature called "Rays to Wake" on your phone. So if you have an iPhone, when you pick it up, the screen turns on automatically. So it's just you pick the thing up, "Mom, screen's on," and then you go into your funnel of getting on your phone, being on there for probably 2 days long. But she mentioned that you can just turn that setting off. So when you pick your phone up, nothing turns on. And then for me, especially for the first little while, having turned that setting off, I would just pick up my phone and I would see myself in the reflection. I'd go, "Oh, man. What a good little metaphorical lesson there." So yeah, go into your settings and you can just turn that shit off. I think that's such a cool little practical tip. She also mentioned a great kind of analogy for a lot of the things that I mentioned in this podcast too, but she said, "Our default settings are not optimal." So think about how we are default programmed in today's world to just be mindless and passive. It's not ideal. She talked about the phone. The default settings of the phone are kind of set up for you to fail. And you can go in there and say, "Oh, what is this setting do?" You can be curious about that. You can learn about the raised-to-wake feature and make it work better to empower you more just in these little ways. But it takes work. It takes the curiosity. It takes the awareness. This is such a powerful idea because if you're willing to go in and change those default settings, you can truly level up your mind. You can truly level up your life. Through doing this so that that was such a cool point. I'm really glad I remember to write that down because that's it was awesome Now now the last do something I Think this is kind of is just a general But enjoy your life more If you enjoyed your life more you wouldn't want to be on the phone as much If you're hanging out with people that you love you're not gonna be stuck to that phone And if you are check yourself right? That the the ability to do things that excites you That is that is here today There are little pockets of opportunity to do some things that you find fun and leave your phone in the car leave your phone at home Put in your pocket and just don't pick it up every 10 seconds. Whatever Whatever barrier or boundary you want to put around that Do it Because enjoying your life is actually an incredible thing and I'm I'm kind of at fault of this because I'm guilty of this because I like to record everything. It is funny I went to Barton Springs yesterday here in Austin, Texas. It's kind of this huge Naturally fed spring pool kind of thing and there's a diving board on it and It was packed yesterday people just one by one going off this thing hitting these big tricks and I I Can do a double backflip on trampoline, but I hate to do it into water because it's just so freaking scary and when I slap on water It's just the worst feeling but yesterday I just felt compelled like I needed to I need to hit the double backflip So I got up there just ripped it landed it just fine and After where it's just kind of gone man did I really just do an undocumented double backflip? There's not even a video of it. You know what what even was the point right? Kind of a kind of a funny tongue-in-cheek statement of not everything needs to be recorded of course, but Honestly, it would have been nice, but look enjoy your life more and I'm trying to do that in every single sense not just the phone way, but let's let's enjoy life Let's keep making life better. That's that's gonna be the the big take away here, okay? So that said a couple things Before I jump if you're watching this on YouTube click subscribe so you don't miss next week's video and Leave a comment. I'd love to hear what you think leave a like If you if you get love it, I'm sure you would I'd really appreciate that too, but just leave a like You know and if you're listening on Spotify You can comment on there as well It's my favorite notification. I've told you guys this before whenever I see that Spotify for creators thing come up And someone leaves a comments as hey man. This was really helpful. Hey, this changed my life. Hey, you're a piece of shit Whatever it is. I'd love to see all of it. It's the best thing ever always makes my day You can click the follow. Oh, wait, I just hit 5k Followers on Spotify, so you guys are the freaking best. How cool is that? So yeah, click the follow so you don't miss next week's episodes and all of the episodes that have come before this one This was episode 50 by the way That is 50 weeks in a row of doing the podcast Almost a year that's crazy. I don't know. I still feel like this is a new thing sometimes But yeah, it's been been quite the ride and I love continuing to make these episodes so Click the follow and leave a five star rating for the show. That would be freaking sick too. I'm coughing like crazy Yeah, I don't wake you up Last but not least well, no not even last. I can't breathe right now Perfect timing. I'm keeping it in raw and real. I might need a few moments to keep coughing holy cow I don't know what's gotten into me, but it's not fun. I'm falling apart right here at the end Now, but if you want to sign up for my newsletter send out two of those a week. You're gonna love it Link to sign up for that is in the description or show notes totally free Keep diving similar topics to this Like I mentioned about the mastermind if you are interested in joining Make sure to click the top link in the show notes or description. You can go to my landing page You can see the information about how the mastermind works set up a consultation called there Also my one-on-one mentorship helping people build unbreakable relationships With themselves so either one of those that you're interested in check out the landing page. I'm here to help And last but not least no fund enter already gave me the rundown, but just in case you forgot put that freaking phone away So I hope you have an incredible day. I I love you. I'll see you in the next one. Bye-bye.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. The speaker uses an alien perspective to critique human behaviors
  2. The core problem is that phones and social media are designed to be addictive, causing mindlessness and atrophy of critical thinking.
  3. Awareness is the first step to breaking the cycle; discipline must be owned internally, not outsourced to products.
  4. Adopting a "producer mindset" (creating content, understanding algorithms) provides insight into how platforms manipulate attention.
  5. Extreme observation—training oneself to notice details in everyday environments—helps reconnect with reality and counter phone-induced numbness.
  6. The speaker emphasizes that building intention and self-communication is personal and requires consistent practice, not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Summary:

The speaker imagines how aliens would view humanity with bewilderment: people spend years in jobs they hate, fight over politics and religion, and remain glued to small rectangular screens, ignoring the vast world around them. This leads to the central topic—how to break the addictive spell of phones and social media. The speaker argues that the first step is awareness: recognizing that these platforms are engineered to capture attention and foster mindlessness.

, Instagram’s swipe-to-reels feature), individuals can begin to reclaim control. The speaker advocates for adopting a “producer mindset,” where one creates content rather than just consuming it, which reveals the mechanics behind algorithms and engagement. This shift fosters curiosity and critical observation, such as noticing subtle changes in app interfaces or practicing peripheral vision exercises while using the phone.

Extreme observation—paying close attention to details in daily life—strengthens the mind and counters atrophy. Ultimately, the speaker stresses that discipline must come from within; no external product can replace personal ownership of one’s behavior. Building intention and self-communication is a gradual, individualized process that requires consistent effort, but it leads to greater clarity and presence in the real world.

FAQs

The episode focuses on how to break the addictive cycle of phone use, build a more mindful relationship with technology, and become more aware and present in daily life.

The first step is to break the hypnosis through awareness—calling attention to your own behavior and recognizing when you are mindlessly scrolling.

The producer mindset involves observing platforms with curiosity, noticing how algorithms and design features (like swipe gestures and notifications) are intentionally crafted to keep you engaged, which helps you gain control.

Extreme observation means tuning your senses to notice small details in your environment, such as architectural features or sounds, which enhances awareness and reduces mindless phone consumption.

The speaker encourages putting your phone away during dinner to practice being present and mindful, repeating this message at the end of each podcast episode.

The speaker believes that relying on external products can prevent people from taking full ownership of their own discipline and good behavior, which should come from within.

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